Well, tonight’s the big night at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony! It will be fantastic! And the Nirvana Facebook page posted THIS! Speculators are speculating that the white guitar belongs to Joan Jett. Will she perform tonight with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear when the surviving members of Nirvana take the stage tonight? Wonderers are wondering. Along with Nirvana, the E Street Band, Linda Ronstadt, Kiss, Cat Stevens and Hall & Oates will be inducted into the Rock Hall. But don’t worry if you can’t come to NYC to see it live. HBO will be showing a severely edited version of it on May 31st. Check your TV guide for times. I dunno, but I think I may have to walk up and buy a ticket. Seems just too monumental to pass up. Anyhow, Pulse of Radio asked Charles R. Cross, Nirvana’s biographer, what late frontman Kurt Cobain might have thought about being inducted into the Hall of Fame: “Kurt won awards when he was alive, he won MTV Music Awards, he did go to those ceremonies, he did give speeches. You know, at the same time, it was an uncomfortable relationship for Kurt. So my feeling is, he would have been honored to have been included with so many legends that he loved, and he was a student of rock history, so to be there I think he would have appreciated. At the same time, I think he would have managed to say the most sarcastic things possible as he was accepting that award.” Totally see that!….Congrats to my friends from the Windy City! Pulse of Radio reports Chevelle‘s seventh studio album, La Gargola, sold around 45,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at Number Three on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday (April 9th). The chart number is the highest debut of the band’s career, surpassing its previous peak of Number Six with 2009’s Sci-Fi Crimes. The CD arrived in stores on April 1st and is the trio’s final release under its current contract with Epic Records. The first single, “Take Out The Gunman,” tops the rock radio chart this week, making it the fourth Number One song of the band’s career and its 12th to crack the rock Top 10. The trio is currently on a headlining tour with Nothing More and Oh Brother, stopping in Houston tonight (April 10th)…Also debuting this week at #20 is the Ronnie James Dio tribute CD, This Is Your Life, featuring Halestorm, Corey Taylor, Metallica, Rob Halford and more. Proceeds from the record benefit Dio’s Stand Up & Shout Out Cancer Fund…..Linkin Park have made it official. Jun 17th is the release date for their new album, The Hunting Party. They announced it on Noisey yesterday. The album artwork was also revealed. Noisey conducted an interview with Mike Shinoda and you can read here. I guess I’m the only one talking about the fact that two of the 5 other new songs Mike played last week (there are 12 songs total on the new album) in a listening session have guest appearances by Helmet’s Paige Hamilton and one with Daron Malakian of System Of A Down. I believe Daron also adds some vocals to the tune “Rebellion,” but I think Paige is only playing guitar on “All For Nothing.” Don’t quote me there as I don’t want to leave him out if he also had done vocals. May have to text him to ask. Anyhow, great interview, Drew….Ex-My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has recorded a song for the soundtrack of Tusk, a new horror movie from writer/director Kevin Smith. The track that Way recorded, called “Oh Waly Waly” or “The Water Is Wide,” is an “old English folk song written in the 1600s,” said Smith, who explained, “Gerard turned the piece into this achingly beautiful, haunting declaration of undying, hopeless love.” The movie is due out this fall. I am also hearing Gerard has a solo record coming out in the coming months…..Brad Wilk, Rage Against the Machine drummer, has a new band called The Last Internationale. The record is coming soon and the female fronted band, will be in the hardDriveRadio studios on April 21…..Today, Black Stone Cherry have an appointment to stop by those same studios for an interview and acoustic performance. Keep an eye open here for more info on them. Pretty cool stuff. Their new album, Magic Mountain, drops May 6th. It was produced by Joe Barresi, who also did Chevelle‘s La Gargola…..Another interesting project in the works is this one. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has teamed up with former members of the band The Mars Volta in a new act called Antemasque. The lineup includes ex-Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and drummer Dave Elitsch. A first single called “4AM” has been recorded and is available on iTunes, while two short promo videos have surfaced online as well. I interviewed Omar in Amsterdam several years ago when he was in At The Drive-In. (Could it have been in 1999?) Whoa. Cool dude….And in closing today, sorry Billboard. You have this all wrong. They announced the nominees for this year’s Billboard Awards and check out these bands nominated for Top Rock Artist:
Capital Cities
Fall Out Boy
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Passenger and
Top Rock Album
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
Fall Out Boy – Save Rock And Roll
Imagine Dragons – Night Visions
Lorde – Pure Heroine
Mumford & Sons – Babel
That’s a bunch of Freakin’ RUBBISH if you ask ME! Now if you said Alternative Rock, I would have no problem, but to call any of this music ROCK? I am insulted!….Celebrating birthdays today: John Madden turns 78! Steven Seagal is 63 and my friend Mike Mushok of Staind is 44.